Chekhov and Mauassant essays

Chekhov and Mauassant essays The Darling by Anton Chekhov and The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant are very similar pieces of writing even though they were written fifteen years apart and in two separate countries (Russia and France respectively). In both stories we have a woman who loses something at a point in her life, and she is forever a different person because of it. Precisely looking at a passage from The Darling and a passage from The Necklace, one can notice many similarities between the two stories. The passage from Chekhovs The Darling starting on page 298 and finishing on page 299 from Now she was absolutely alone. (298) To And she would shake the kitten off her skirt and say... (299). This passage, written in the third person, takes place after the main character Olenka (Olga) is absolutely alone. At this point, her father has been dead for a long while, her first husband Kukin had passed away, her second husband Pustovalov had just died, and her friend Vladimir Platonitch had left her. At this point, she is very depressing, yet no one feels sorrow for her any longer. They no longer look at her as they used to and did not smile at her. She does not enjoy life anymore. She sits at her porch and looks without interest. In Guy de Maupassants The Necklace, Madame Loisel changes through her loss of a friends necklace. During the time the Loisels are repaying the loans back, Mme. Loisel changes drastically. She goes from a young woman in heart and physical appearance to strong and hard and rough. This is clearly evident in the passage on page 980 to 981 at Mme. Loisel now knew the horrible existence of the needy (980) to How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or to be saved! (981) Mme. Loisel, aged from the ten h...